All right. I knew that they were finally (FINALLY) going to try some of the people held at Guantanamo for way-too-long, and I recently saw a news article saying that Osama bin Laden's driver had been found guilty of supporting terrorism, but not anything irrelevant like conspiracy. This suggested that, at least, somebody was following logic and wasn't just going to torture these people even more, deserving or not.

Of course, it was very hard for me to feel like something "good" was really happening here, as a little progress at the end of several years of nightmare doesn't erase all the unjustified imprisonments et cetera.

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) -- A military jury gave Osama bin Laden's driver a stunningly lenient sentence on Thursday, making him eligible for release in just five months despite the prosecutors' request for a sentence tough enough to frighten terrorists around the globe.

Salim Hamdan's sentence of 5 1/2 years, including five years and a month already served at Guantanamo Bay, fell far short of the 30 years to life that prosecutors wanted. It now goes for mandatory review to a Pentagon official who can shorten the sentence but not extend it.

It remains unclear what will happen to Hamdan once his sentence is served, since the U.S. military has said it won't release anyone who still represents a threat. The judge, Navy Capt. Keith Allred, said Hamdan would likely be eligible for the same administrative review process as other prisoners.

Hamdan thanked the jurors for the sentence and repeated his apology for having served bin Laden.

"I would like to apologize one more time to all the members and I would like to thank you for what you have done for me," Hamdan told the panel of six U.S. military officers, hand-picked by the Pentagon for the first U.S. war crimes trial in a half century.

The military has not said where Hamdan will serve his sentence, but the commander of the detention center, Navy Rear Adm. David Thomas, said last week that convicted prisoners will be held apart from the general detainee population at the isolated U.S. military base in southeast Cuba.

"I hope the day comes that you return to your wife and daughters and your country, and you're able to be a provider, a father, and a husband in the best sense of all those terms," the judge told Hamdan.

I almost feel like saying some sort of "amen" myself, but I can hardly figure out the theological implications at this point. I'll just have to wait and see what happens next. It actually looks like they're not going to torture this minor figure with a life sentence. It looks like there might actually be justice, meaning there might actually be hope that things including freedom will be properly distributed after this point.

Of course, I could be overreacting with that last bit. They could easily dash such hopes by just going through the trials without ever releasing the innocent ones.